


Cries in the Night (Baby, It's Okay)

by novemberhush



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: A Little Light Angst, Beware spoilers for multiple episodes across seasons 1-7, Established Relationship, Future Fic, M/M, Mentions of Grace Williams and OMC, Reassuring Steve, Tumblr Prompt, Worried Danny, mcdanno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-21 18:49:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11363463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/novemberhush/pseuds/novemberhush
Summary: Grace is getting married and Danny is being Danny.





	Cries in the Night (Baby, It's Okay)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! So I've watched 'Hawaii Five-O' from the start and shipped McDanno for as long as I've been watching, but other than a little comment fic I rattled off on tumblr this is my first time writing for them. The prompt for this fic came from an anonymous message on tumblr (thank you, whoever you are!) that said exactly what I wrote in the summary. And, yes, the title is from 'Livin' On A Prayer' by Bon Jovi! Sadly, I own none of the characters herein. If I did they'd have got married years ago. Hope you enjoy! :-)

It’s not the first time Steve’s been woken by a smack in the face from a flailing limb (this is Danny, after all; flailing limbs come as standard), and it probably won’t be the last, but usually he has to wait until Danny is awake to discover which particular nightmare has reared its ugly head to haunt his husband this time.

  
Has to wait until Danny’s breathing has calmed and he is able to gather himself enough to confide in Steve about whether he was being tormented by images of some of the _actual_ myriad horrors he’s witnessed over the years or if his anxiety had once again hijacked his already distressing experiences and twisted them in his mind, conjuring up imaginary outcomes more traumatic than the real ones were.

  
Some nights he knows it’s images of finding him, Steve, in the back of a truck in North Korea, only this time Danny’s too late and Steve’s dead. Sometimes it’s the sight of Steve bleeding out in the cockpit of a private plane, convinced he’s going to die, and this time being proved right. Other nights it’s Steve, tortured, beaten and bloody at the hands of Wo Fat, and asking for a father Danny has to remind him is gone.

  
Some nights it’s reliving the cold sweat-inducing panic of having to stand in place, afraid to make one wrong move, while the bomb squad tries frantically to disarm a bomb that could go off at any second. Others it’s the terror of a building coming down on top of them; frightening enough for anyone, but even more so for a claustrophobe like Danny. Every now and then it’s seeing his partner, the one whose name he bestowed upon his daughter, murdered right in front of him on a day that was already destined to go down as one of the worst in America’s history.

  
Some nights it’s images of that same daughter and her friends, dressed to the nines for their Winter Formal, smiling and laughing and trying to spike the punch before terrorists burst in and the laughter turns to screams and the tuxes and pretty dresses are replaced with body bags. Or a meeting with Charlie’s doctor and hearing the dreaded words, “It’s come back again”. Or images of what would have happened to them, and every other child within the fallout zone, if Steve hadn’t managed to remove the uranium from that dirty bomb.

  
Then there are the nights, the worst ones of all, when he dreams of his brother’s body stuffed into a barrel, and of what that sight made him do. Steve knows he would have reacted the same way Danny did and can’t imagine feeling a shred of remorse for killing the man, unarmed or otherwise, who’d ordered the death of his sibling. But he also happens to know Danny.

  
Danny with his big mouth and his huge heart and his unfailing moral compass. And he knows he is plagued with regret for taking a life out of pain and despair and a desperate desire for vengeance rather than out of necessity and the need to defend oneself or protect others. He knows what Danny did to Reyes that day still weighs on him, and always will, and as with all Danny’s burdens he wishes he could take the load for him, but accepts he must settle for merely helping to carry it.

  
He knows, too, that he has more than enough bad memories himself to provide fodder for his own night terrors. He still goes cold when he remembers the night, years ago now, not long after he and Danny had first (finally) started sharing a bed, when he awoke from the throes of a nightmare to find his hands around Danny’s throat, trying to strangle an imaginary foe.

  
It had taken three months of constant reassurance and never-ending patience from Danny, as well as thrice weekly sessions with their therapist, before he could be coaxed out of sleeping on the couch and back into their bed, and even then he had spent another three nights lying awake until dawn, terrified of what he might do, before exhaustion eventually got the better of him and he succumbed to sleep.

  
These days when he wakes from a nightmare he finds himself being wrapped in strong, loving arms, careful fingers stroking through his hair and a warm, familiar voice, sweet and low, murmuring assurances that _it’s okay, babe, everything’s all right_. These days he never has to wake to an empty bed and a gnawing sense of aloneness. He has a partner now, in every sense of the word. One he knows will always be there to help him carry his own burdens. One who has given him the family he’s craved ever since his own was torn apart at such a young age.

  
So on the nights it’s Danny thrashing about, heart racing and adrenaline pumping as some phantom terrorises his dreams, Steve is always there to return the favour. Shaking Danny awake and pulling him into the shelter of his arms, big hands running up and down his back, repeating their mantra of _it’s okay, babe, everything’s all right_ , until the racking sobs and heaving chest subside into little whimpers and a normal breathing pattern again. Then, when Danny is able to talk, he’ll listen to his whispered confession about what was preying on his rest this time.

  
Tonight, though, he didn’t need to guess. He didn’t need to wait for Danny to tell him. Tonight he knew exactly what was playing on his husband’s mind.

  
”Danny. Hey, Danny, wake up, babe. You’re having a bad dream. Come on, wake up,” he says softly, hand gently shaking the shoulder next to him, the one connected to the arm that just smacked him one dead in the face.

  
“Wha…?”

  
He couldn’t help the fond smile that escaped him at the sight of his Danno, beautiful blue eyes blinking awake, confused, incoherent and with a raging case of bed hair.

  
“Steve? What’s going on? Did we get a call out or something?”

  
“No, babe, nothing like that. You were having a bad dream is all.”

  
“Oh. Oh, right. Yeah. I remember now.”

  
Steve smiled again. “It was about the wedding again, wasn’t it?”

  
“Huh? The wedding? Why would you think that?”

  
Rolling his eyes, Steve replied, “Because ever since Grace and Lance announced they were getting married most of your nightmares have revolved around the wedding. You’ve dreamt Hawaii got hit by a hurricane. That everyone got food poisoning and someone barfed on Gracie’s wedding dress. That someone stole the nuclear launch codes and was threatening to wipe us all out. And God knows how many other scenarios. Anything that could go wrong, you’ve dreamt about it. And since the wedding is actually taking place tomorrow - well, today, really - it seemed like a fairly safe bet that was what you were dreaming about.”

  
“Well, thank you, Dr. Phil. Remind me again why we wasted all that money on a therapist when we had a fully qualified one right here all along?”

  
“Hey, hey, come here. Come here,” Steve cooed, pulling Danny close and resisting the urge to fall into their old, familiar banter, the back and forth that had defined so much of their relationship and that he would rather have with this man above all others.

  
“It’s going to be okay, you know. Everything is going to be perfect. Nothing can go wrong.”

  
The derisive snort that claim was met with was only a _little_ hurtful.

  
“Nothing can go wrong, huh? Isn’t that what you said to me on the phone the night before we got married? Oh no, wait, that’s right, it was the night before we _tried_ to get married. The night before _the first time_ we tried to get married. The night before our ceremony on the beach was interrupted by your ex-girlfriend _jet skiing_ into the middle of proceedings and declaring she needed you!”

  
“Needed my _help_ , Danno, that’s all. It wasn’t Cath’s fault someone hijacked a nuclear submarine and was threatening to wipe out half the Eastern Seaboard on our wedding day. It’s not like she planned it.”

  
“And it just happened to be a coincidence she pitched up right at the ‘if anyone here knows of any just reason why these two people should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace’ part??”

  
“Yeah, Danny, a coincidence! They do happen occasionally, you know!”

  
“Oh, so I guess it was just a _coincidence_ that the _second_ time we tried to get married your mother and her gang of geriatric mercenaries _abseiled_ from a _chopper_ right in the middle of the vows like some modern day, menopausal A-Team?? I could practically _hear_ her thinking, ‘I love it when a plan comes together’! All she needed was a safari jacket and a cigar to chomp on!”

  
“Are you … let me get this right … are you seriously comparing my mother to _Hannibal_ _Smith_ right now??”

  
“If the safari jacket fits, Steven!”

  
Steve didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just rolled his eyes again and said nothing. But always one to look on the bright side he couldn’t help grinning as he remembered the third time he and Danny tried, and finally managed, to tie the knot. Third time’s the charm, and all that. Even if they did have to cut the reception short to go track a terrorist cell and ended up spending most of their honeymoon on an aircraft carrier near the Korean Peninsula.

  
“What are you looking so happy about?” Danny enquired, taking in the goofy expression on Steve’s face with more than just a little suspicion. You never knew what he going to do or say when he got that look on his face.

  
Faraway eyes focussed on him once again. “Huh? Oh, I was just thinking about the day we actually did get married.” That goofy grin again.

  
“Yeah?” Danny leaned up and pressed a gentle kiss to Steve’s lips. “Ever regretted it?” the masochistic side of him couldn’t help asking.

  
“Not for a second, partner.”

  
“Good. Me neither,” Danny smiled before the memory of his dream resurfaced and he turned serious again. “I just want Grace to always be able to say the same, you know? Tonight I dreamt they got married and it didn’t work out and he broke my baby’s heart. I just want to be sure that’s not gonna happen. I want to be sure this guy’s gonna make her happy,” he whispered.

  
“He already does, Danny. You’ve seen them together. He dotes on Grace and she lights up every time she so much as hears his name. When they’re in the same room together her smile could rival the sun.”

  
“Yeah, I know, they’re love’s young dream right now. A regular Romeo and Juliet. But things didn’t work out so well for those two crazy kids.”

  
“Yeah, but you’re forgetting something. Romeo and Juliet had hardly anyone on their side. Their families were too busy fighting each other to see what they were doing to their kids. That’s not Lance and Gracie’s story. They’ve got family that will be there for them, in the good times and bad. Family that will offer guidance and support and help when they need it. Family that will love them and get them through anything. They’ve got Lance’s parents and brothers, they’ve got Five-O and all the ohana that comes with it, and they’ve got us, babe.”

  
“And you think that’s enough? To keep them going when the honeymoon’s over and real life comes a-calling?”

  
“It’s worked for us, hasn’t it?”

  
“Yeah, I guess it has.” But Danny never could leave well enough alone. “But what if it’s still not enough? What if that scrawny little kid breaks our little girl’s heart?”

  
“Then we’ll break his face,” Steve responded, not missing a beat, and Danny was only 50/50 on whether or not he was joking. “But if the worst comes to the worst and it doesn’t work out then we’ll be there then too. Grace will get through it and we’ll be there to help her every step of the way. She’ll pick herself up, dust herself down and she’ll be all right.”

  
“Oh, and you know this how?”

  
“She’s your daughter, isn’t she? She’s a Williams and she may be an island girl by adoption, but she’s a Jersey girl by birth, and aren’t you always telling me how tough you guys are?”

  
“Yeah, but…”

  
“No buts, Danny. Whatever happens, Grace will be okay. We’ll make sure of it. But I gotta be honest, I think they’re gonna make it. I think they’re in it for the long haul.”

  
“And again I ask - and you know this how? Developed psychic powers? Read their palms? Consulted your crystal ball or something?”

  
“No. I’ve just seen the way they look at each other, that’s all.”

  
“And what way’s that?”

  
“The same way we look at each other.”

  
“I married a sap.” Danny’s voice was deadpan, but Steve could hear the fondness behind it.

  
“Yeah, and I married Oscar the Grouch, but you don’t hear me complaining.”

  
Steve received another flailing limb to his midsection for that one, but it was only a love tap. Taking gentle hold of Danny’s arm he settled it around his own waist once more and nuzzled the top of Danny’s head.

  
“Think you can get back to sleep again now, Jersey? Big day ahead of us tomorrow. We should get all the rest we can.”

  
“Mmm hmm,” Danny mumbled, snuggling in closer to his husband. But he wasn’t quite ready to let the subject drop just yet. “And you really think they’ll be okay? That he won’t break our Monkey’s heart?”

  
“Yeah, babe, I really think they’ll be okay. Now get some sleep.”

  
“Okay. ‘Night, you big goof.”

  
“Goodnight, Danno. I love you too.”

  
And as if Steve really did have a crystal ball, the wedding went off without a hitch, despite all Danny’s worrying. The weather was glorious, the food delicious, the bride beautiful and radiant with happiness and the groom clearly besotted.

Every criminal in Hawaii also seemed to have come to the infinitely sensible conclusion that doing anything that might disrupt the most important day in the life of the most important woman in both Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams’ life would be a very stupid move, and one they would pay dearly for, so there were no interruptions of a criminal nature for the team to deal with either.

And if they both happened to sleep through that night without a single bad dream between them then Steve counted that not just as a victory, but as the perfect end to a perfect day.

**Author's Note:**

> So, thanks for reading. If you feel like saying aloha please do so, either in the comments here or over on tumblr where I'm also known as novemberhush. I promise I don't bite! Well, unless you ask nicely... ;-)


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